I feel that one size does not fit all. This applies not only to readymade clothes but also to patients, with the difference that no two patients are alike. I have come to this conclusion after my experience with specialists and surgeons who don’t think twice before treading on the beaten path.
I had consulted a surgeon for a minor problem and she had assured me it could be rectified with surgery, which again was a very minor one. I could even go to work the next day, she said. The surgery was performed under anesthesia and after asking if I needed to take any antibiotics, she prescribed them for a week and asked me to meet her the following week.
Believe me, from the seventh day of the surgery I began to suffer agony, not being comfortable in any position, sitting, standing or lying down. When I went back to her with my complaint she said my threshold of pain was less than the minimum and that I needed to increase my level of tolerance. She failed to attribute the pain and discomfort to an infection I had developed post-surgery. The only option was to change my doctor, from this 80-plus lady to someone much younger, to undo the damage, and it was an emergency.
Again, my experience with specialists of all kinds had been no different when consulted for breathlessness, frequent stomach upsets and fatigue. They advised me to undergo different investigations, from ECG and echocardiogram to the different scans available, apart from blood tests, just to rule out their worst suspicions and my fears, and also perhaps to identify the reason for my weight loss — more than 10 kg over the period of a year.
The irony of it is that though the doctors were unable to identify the reasons for the weight loss after meticulously going through the reports, I have stumbled upon it — which was to increase my intake, which resulted in better digestion and assimilation and breathing into a respiratory exerciser, which helped me get rid of breathlessness.
Also, a glass of chilled milk early in the morning worked wonders for acidity instead of chewing antacids that I used to take on doctors’ advice.
